Delhi High Court rejects Congress petitions against tax reassessment proceedings

The Delhi High Court on Friday rejected three petitions filed by the Indian National Congress (INC) challenging the reassessment proceedings initiated against it by the Income Tax (IT) Department..A Division Bench of Justices Yashwant Varma and Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav had reserved the verdict on March 20.During the pronouncement today, the Court said it had dealt with all the contentions of Congress. except the one regarding the delay in initiation of the reassessment proceedings. "We have chosen not to answer it because you arrived before us only on 20th [March]. The assessment is to be completed by 31st; that is something we have left open for you to urge," Justice Varma told the counsel representing Congress..Escaped income by the Congress is more than ₹520 crore: IT Department tells Delhi High Court.The opposition party's petitions challenged the IT Department's reassessment proceedings initiated against it for the years 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17..Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi had appeared for the Congress party and said that the reassessment proceedings are barred by limitation and are being done in violation of the provisions of the Income Tax Act.Advocate Zoheb Hossain appeared for the IT department and stated that there had been no violation of the statutory provisions and that the escaped income by the Congress was more than ₹520 crore..The Court had on March 13 rejected a plea filed by the Congress against an order of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) rejecting its plea for stay on the demand notice issued by IT department for recovery of nearly ₹105 crore in outstanding taxes.The Bench of Justices Yashwant Varma and Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav had said there was no reason to interfere with the ITAT order.However, the Court had allowed Congress to move a fresh application for a stay before the ITAT, bearing in mind the developments that have occurred in the meanwhile including the recovery of an amount of ₹65.94 crore from the party..IT Department has evidence on unaccounted transactions by Megha Group to Congress: Delhi High Court.Senior Advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Vivek Tankha, AS Chandhiok and PC Sen along with Advocates Prasanna, Amit Bhandari, Siddharth s, Vipul Tiwari, Inder Singh, Simran Kohli, Vidhushi Keshari, Kanishka Singh, Nikhil Bhalla & Swati Arya represented the Indian National CongressSenior Standing Counsel Zoheb Hossain and Vipul Agrawal with Advocates Sanjeev Menon, Sakshi Shairwal and Vivek Gurnani represented the IT Department.[Read Judgment]